


only looking for love, in this lonely night

by morphological (phraseme)



Category: Universal Century Gundam, Zeta Gundam
Genre: Drinking & Talking, Karaoke, Missing Scene, Party, Pining
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-05
Updated: 2020-03-05
Packaged: 2021-02-28 19:06:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,303
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23032186
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/phraseme/pseuds/morphological
Summary: the one where amuro has too much to drink and char finds out he can carry a tune. title from the kimagure orange road banger "bayside dancer," composed by shiro sagisu and sung by furuya tohru himself
Relationships: Char Aznable/Amuro Ray
Comments: 1
Kudos: 21





	only looking for love, in this lonely night

**Author's Note:**

  * For [provetheworst](https://archiveofourown.org/users/provetheworst/gifts).



There is very little about Amuro Ray that can surprise him anymore. The man known as Quattro, an ordinary lieutenant, adjusts his sunglasses and smiles, inscrutable and shadowed in the corner of the _Argama_ 's rec room. He leans against the bulkhead and lets his gaze fly over the familiar faces in the room, notes the way they seem strange and new to him when observed up close. Hayato pours cupfuls of something that Captain Noa may or may not have overlooked in Luo and Company's shipping manifest; it looks amber-brown and smells illegal.

"Here, take one." Few people can speak to Amuro that way anymore, but from what he knows about the man, Hayato was also someone who grew up alongside Amuro Ray before the war. Before the One Year War, at any rate; so the man known as Quattro should watch him, too. Amuro takes the cup and winces when the scent wafts up to his nose, and few things are as interesting as the way his blue eyes crinkle in disgust, his nose wrinkling in tandem with his flat, thinning lips.

Everyone else has dressed down, but Amuro keeps on the black jacket and that mustard-yellow turtleneck. "Are you sure about this?" Amuro scowls, and Hayato says something under his breath that makes them laugh together. 

He would have liked to know what was said. On Earth, these traditions were still intact-- _ nomikai _ , Kai Shi Den had called them, and winked at the same shared syllable of his name. He'd seen the Zabi family conduct something similar, albeit with much more gilt utensils, banquet-style seating, and expensive alcohol. It was a human thing, not a Spacenoid or Earthbound thing, to need companionship and comfort in the stretches of silent travel.

"If the Captain doesn't sing first," Beltorchika says, long eyelashes fluttering, "I can." The good captain is not present, although Amuro looks around for him as if they could summon Bright Noa by saying his name. "I know the perfect song." 

They sit in a semicircle, the rec room's entertainment system projecting soft pastel lights while Apolly punches in a sequence of numbers. The lights get a little brighter, little neon flickers scattered across their faces while Beltorchika gets up and connects, of all things, an old-fashioned wired microphone. "I hate these things," she sighs, but pulls down her miniskirt and stands at the ready, waiting for music to replace the curious quiet. 

"It's tradition!" Apolly replies, and Fa looks at the microphone in Beltorchika's hands as if Apolly had wired it to explode. He'd have to remember that for later, if he ever had the chance.

He's never heard the song before, but Beltorchika makes a good show of it. The melody is quick and the song is upbeat, and the lyrics are--of course--about falling in love. She is, as she's appeared in all things, enthusiastic and highly specific, targeting a majority of her winks and air-blown kisses to Amuro.

He dutifully stays sitting down as the song progresses, and drinks from the cup Hayato's handed him as if it were water. While he can admit that Beltorchika is attractive and charming in all the right ways (he must find out who's assigned her to Amuro, when he can) Amuro does not revel in the attention. Instead, he looks at her, or through her, and the flush on his face deepens until it matches the neon pink haze the entertainment system produces.

"Thank you!" Beltorchika croons into the microphone, stepping neatly over the cables. She hands the microphone off to Henken, who passes it off to Fa, and sits down flushed in her triumph while Fa gives the microphone to Lieutenant Sheen. "Thanks so much!"

"You were great," Fraw tells her, and Beltorchika grins while tossing her hair back in a cloud of soft blonde.

"Did you want to reply?" Lieutenant Sheen offers Amuro the microphone, and her nervous giggle punctuates the way Amuro studies the offending thing with slightly too-bright eyes. He heaves a sigh, and Hayato claps him on the back. 

"He won't," he laughs, and moves to tousle Amuro's thick, brown curls. 

"I might," Amuro grumbles back, and ducks to avoid Hayato's hand, brushes against the microphone. The whole world narrows to the way Amuro's slender fingers grasp it like a joystick, his other hand still clutching his empty cup.

"Woah, wow, clear the deck!" Apolly shouts, just as if Amuro were readying to launch, and Kai laughs so hard he's nearly folded in half. "You know which one?"

"Yeah, I do," Amuro says, and his words are too clean to come from a sober mouth. He punches in a quick code, and there's no hesitance in his movements. Char smiles, for the first time that night, and leans forward to watch with interest. This, he might remember for the rest of his life.

Amuro sways a little when the strong beat kicks in, the music a thundering and quick-paced song. It's not the bubblegum youth of Beltorchika's choice, something that he can't help but feel is quite deliberate. Amuro Ray was never one to pull punches.

It's a strange song, with sad lyrics and a swift, urgent rhythm. Amuro doesn't dance, not quite, but he sways and rocks his hips a little when he doesn't sing. No, he sings the way he drives: like there's nothing else he can think about but this, the absurd now and the bittersweet past. He's never heard this song before either, but he thinks he knows how it might go. That's the thing about popular music; it all sounds a little same-y in the end.

He didn't think Amuro would be the kind of person to belt out a song like this. Spacenoids are naturally used to silence, and from what he knows about Amuro Ray at all, there are little to no preferences to the creative or performing arts. This is new intel, and he needs a minute to think it through, if Amuro will let him. He takes his glasses off--no use in hiding the color of his eyes when no one will look at him--and steals a precious few seconds just to really see him, a smile curling at his lips and his voice let loose, wild delight pulsing under every inch of his skin. Amuro is too serious for it to be funny, and he doesn't feel like laughing anyway.

As the song ends, the assembled audience bursts into enthused clapping. "I didn't know you could carry a tune!" Henkel says, and Amuro nearly throws his microphone at his head like a rocket launcher. He tries to ignore the way the crew rib him for his little stunt, but the pleased, red flush reaches to the tips of his ears. He only covers his face when he sits back down, back at his seat with Hayato pushing another cup at him, and tries not to look anyone in the eye.

"You've done worse," Hayato interjects, and toasts Amuro with his own. "And this time, you were in tune!"

"Shut up," Amuro says, but he's laughing, blue eyes glinting while he settles back down. The slope of his shoulders is relaxed, and Amuro sits cross-legged while Fa takes the microphone to sing something else. "The faster I get it over with, the faster everyone else will forget."

The lieutenant known as Quattro would, most likely, be up in short order if the singing conscription was mandatory. He puts his glasses back on his face and waits until young Fa croons something slow to slip outside, pushes off the bulkhead as if he were in zero-grav and melts into the shadows.

"Unlikely," he chuckles to himself, well out of Amuro Ray's earshot. "I don't think anyone's going to forget that any time soon."

**Author's Note:**

> amuro got drunk so quickly because as it turns out a sandwich will actually not sustain a grown man who is working with giant robots and robotics tools


End file.
